Set up to celebrate the wonderful, whimsical work of Vasco Urbano Loureiro, also known as Vasco Louis Loureiro and Louis Vasco. It is hoped that this will bring other Vasco owners and Loureiro researchers out into the open.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Gwendolyn, Woman of Mystery?

I have written about Gwendolyn in the Great War Ephemera blog. However, there is much that is unexplained. Just who was she, this Gwendolyn (or Gwendoline) Sargent (or Dunlop)who married Vasco Loureiro in 1916?

Working backwards from her death registration and burial:
Death Reg: Gwendoline Vasco. Father: John Beckett Sargent. Mother: Elizabeth Mary Margaret Tregonning Cheynoweth.
Burial: Vasco Gwendoline 76 years 1953 Lutwyche
I suppose we have to assume here that there are no fibs being told on the registration. The age at death is consistent with the age given when a Mrs Gwendolyn Dunlop of Australia crossed the border from Canada into the United States around 1910. Strange thing is, the Canadian Passenger Lists 1865-1935 have a Gwendoline Sargent arriving there in a year that I cannot access because my subscription is for England and Australian records. If she arrived as Sargent and crossed the border as Dunlop, does that mean she married Mr Dunlop in Canada?

However, the deaths for the same general period rule out these two names, as do the dates of birth which are too late for someone fathering a person born in 1877. One or both could be Gwendolyn's brother.

There is a very definitive death registration for Elizabeth Mary Sargent, born about 1845, giving the full name as per Gwendolyn's death registration:Deaths Dec 1893
Sargent, Elizabeth Mary M T. aged 48 Liskeard Vol.5c page39

It would appear that Marion is the Marion Delphine SARGENT who married Charles Drummond SMITH in Liskeard in the December Quarter of 1892. They can be found in the 1901 Census at Liskeard, Charles a Railway Clerk aged 37, born in Chelsea, A daughter, Lizzie M SMITH, aged 7, is also in the household.

John Sargent aged 68 born 1805 died 1873
Bessie Sargent aged 44 born 1821 died 1865 wife of John Sargent
John Beckett Sargent aged 35 born 1846 died 1881 son of John Sargent

(Note: I requested a photo of this headstone, and overnight the owner of the relevant website contacted me to say that Isabel requested this photo last year. I think you call that "independent verification".)

So, there is Gwendolyn/Gwendoline's early life sorted out. We know a lot about her up to 1891.

What happened after, say, 1893 when her mother passed away?

Overnight Research: I stumbled upon a reference to Gwendoline Sargent, barmaid at the Royal Hotel, Thames, New Zealand in an April 1896 court report in the Thames Star. So, did our Gwendoline arrive here in Australia via New Zealand?